Hal Finney: Bitcoin and I

Original author: Hal Finney
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Here I thought it was worth writing about the last four years, full of events for both me and Bitcoin.

For those who don't know me, I'm Hal Finney. I began my career in cryptography with work on an early version of PGP, side by side with Phil Zimmerman. When Phil decided to found PGP Corporation , I was among the first to be hired. I would have worked on PGP until retirement. At the same time, I got in touch with cryptopunks ( Cypherpunks ). I held the first anonymous encryption remailer , among other things.

Rewind until the end of 2008 and the advent of Bitcoin. I noticed that the "grandfathers" in cryptography (I myself was already in the middle of my fifth dozen) are becoming cynical. I was more idealistic; I have always loved cryptography with its secrets and paradoxes. When Satoshi introduced Bitcoin to the cryptographic mailing list, he was skeptical at best. Cryptographers have seen too many “great projects” from uneducated beginners, so their reaction was predictable.

I was more positive; cryptographic payment schemes have interested me for a long time. Plus, I was lucky enough to meet and chat closely with Wei Dai and Nick Szabo, universally recognized authors of ideas that, it seemed to me, would be implemented in Bitcoin. I even tried to create my own currency based on a proof of work done, called RPOW. So I found Bitcoin alluring.

When Satoshi published the first release of the software, I immediately pulled it off. I think I was the first, apart from Satoshi, who launched it. I mined a 70-something-there block, and was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction when Satoshi sent me ten coins as a test. We talked closely with Satoshi by email over the next few days, I mostly wrote bugs, and he fixed them.

Today, Satoshi's true identity is shrouded in mystery. But at that time I thought that I was dealing with a young man of Japanese descent, very smart and sincere. I had the luck in my life to recognize many prominent people, and I can recognize them.

After a few days, Bitcoin was already working quite stably, and I left it to work. These were the days when the complexity was equal to one, and you could find a whole block on the processor, even without a video card. During these days, I mined a few blocks; but then I turned it off, because my computer warmed up and the noise from the fan began to annoy me. Now, looking back, I would like to hold it longer. But, on the other hand, I was already incredibly lucky to be there, at the very source. The coin has two sides.

The next time I heard about Bitcoin at the end of 2010, when I was surprised to learn that it was not only still alive, but the coins had gained monetary value. I brushed off the dust from my old wallet and was relieved to find that my bitcoins are still there. Since their price has already risen to the level of real money, I transferred the coins to an offline wallet, where, I hope, they will cost something for my descendants.

Speaking of descendants. In 2009, I got a surprise when I accidentally discovered a deadly disease. At the beginning of the year I was in the best shape of my life, lost a lot of weight and went in for long-distance running. I already ran a half marathon several times, and began to train for the marathon. I progressed to jogging 20+ miles and was sure that I was fine. That's where it all went wrong.

My body began to give up. The speech became slurred, the strength left the hands, and the legs began to recover slowly. In August 2009, I was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig’s disease, after a famous baseball player who suffered from it.

ALS is a disease that affects motor neurons that transmit signals from the brain to muscles. It causes weakness at first, and then gradually increasing paralysis. Fatal outcome occurs within two to five years. My symptoms were weak at first, and I continued to work, but shortness of breath and voice problems forced me to retire at the beginning of 2011. Since then, the disease has continued to progress inexorably.

Today I am mostly paralyzed. I eat through the tube, another tube helps me breathe. I work with a computer through one of the systems on the market that track eye movements. She also has a speech synthesizer, this is now my voice. I spend all day in a motorized chair. I built an interface on the Arduino, with which I can correct the position of my chair with my eyes.

Yes, I had to adapt, but my life is not so bad. I can still read, listen to music, watch TV and movies. I recently discovered that I can even write code. Very slowly, probably 50 times slower than before. But I still love programming, and it gives me goals. I'm currently working on something suggested by Mike Harn. I want to use the capabilities implemented in modern processors to support trusted computing in order to make Bitcoin wallets more reliable. The project is almost ready for release. I only need to write documentation.

And of course, the game of bitcoin price amuses me. In this game I have selfish interest. But I got my bitcoins thanks to luck, without much merit on my part. I survived the collapse in 2011. So this is already familiar to me. As acquired, and lived, as they say.

Here is my story. All in all, I'm pretty lucky. Even with my illness, my life is very tolerable. True, and very limited. So these conversations about inheriting bitcoins are not just academic interest for me. My bitcoins are stored in a reliable bank cell, and my son and daughter are technically savvy. I think they are safe enough there. For my inheritance, I am calm.



Note translator. This text was written by Hal in March 2013, a year ago. Links to it surfaced in the network in connection with recent attempts to reveal the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. According to profile information on bitcointalk.org, his last post dates back to August 2013. Although he reads the forum regularly.

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